Dr Sabeen Ahmad
Lecturer in Human Resource Management – Organisational Behaviour

Including persons with disabilities in a complex environment, the case of workforce diversity in multinationals’ subsidiaries in Pakistan.
Funder: University of East London
Duration: March 2024 - July 2024

The globalisation of organisations and changing demographics of workforces around the world have driven much interest in the areas of diversity and diversity management (DM) among management scholars and practitioners (Summerville et al., 2024). DM has been found to achieve various organisational outcomes such as better utilising talent and increasing productivity, leading to improved organisational performance (Kornau et al., 2023). Although research on DM in multinational enterprises (MNEs) has received increasing attention, managing persons with disabilities (PWD) remains an under-researched area. PWD needs specific attention as it is not only a distinct source of an individual’s identity yet a reason of discrimination and inequality globally. Building on qualitative data from five case studies, this research will explain how Western MNEs in Pakistan manage PWD in their subsidiaries and what kind of challenges they face while transferring best practices and initiatives related to them. This study will fill the gap in literature by providing systematic analysis of contextual differences and will develop theoretically informed evidence-based recommendations on improving inclusion of PWD across different countries context.

Contextualising diversity: a study of transnational transfer of diversity management to subsidiaries of multinational corporations in Pakistan
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council
Duration: December 2022 - November 2024